IF RONNY DEILA didn't know the Celtic history before - and the prominent part Inverness has played in it - he certainly does now.

 

The team from the Highland capital have cost the Hoops manager the gilt-edged chance of a first-season Treble.

Perhaps he should think himself lucky.

In the not-too-distant past, a Caley Thistle win in Inverness cost Neil Lennon's Celtic the title.

Before that, a Scottish Cup win over Celtic cost a Parkhead manager his job.

Of course, the 3-2 extra-time defeat in yesterday's William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final will not put Deila in any danger of suffering the fate of John Barnes 15 years ago.

But it does increase significantly the pressure on the Norwegian to go on and add the SPFL Premiership to the League Cup already in the trophy cabinet.

As the Norwegian acknowledges, there is simply no time for feeling sorry for themselves, even if they have a genuine case for arguing the match officials combined to open the door for Inverness to come back from being a goal down to take the lead, then, after Celtic's 10 men grabbed the equaliser, go on to score a winner in extra time.

Celtic have to head to Dens Park on Wednesday and Tannadice four days later, where Dundee then United will be waiting to see what reaction the league leaders show to this bitter disappointment. The best answer is to extend the five-point advantage they hold over Aberdeen, and move even closer to four-in-a-row.

But the memory of allowing the chance of a Treble to slip through their fingers will not fade quickly or easily. It will be seared on their psyche because this was a golden opportunity squandered.

Ironically, it was the shock cup defeat to Caley Thistle in February, 2000, that opened the Parkhead door for the last man to lead Celtic to a Treble, Martin O'Neill.

The dream team of Barnes and Kenny Dalglish didn't survive the humiliation served up by the then lower-division club.

A few months later, the Northern Irishman swept in to replace them. And, within a season, O'Neill had made a clean sweep of the domestic trophies.

Deila hoped to emulate O'Neill's first-season success, and, in so doing, become only the third Celtic manager to achieve this feat, Jock Stein having done it twice.

With their lead in the title race, and Falkirk waiting for them in the cup final, this was considered the last major hurdle to be cleared.

The fact it would be only the fourth time in the club's history - okay, the Treble has only been possible since the League Cup was first put up for grabs in 1946 - is proof positive it is not simply defensive rhetoric when managers tell all and sundry how tough it is to monopolise the services of the engraver for an entire season.

Deila has been unusual in that he has spoken openly about this being his objective, perhaps, in part, to deflect from the Champions League qualifying failure which so badly marked his start in the job. He has also spoken about being at the helm for the long haul, maybe even for the next decade.

Well, to have any chance of this, he knows he must deliver trophies, and many of them.

Allowing this one to slide out of reach is a setback, and it permits questions which had been put to bed about him and his squad to be given a fresh airing.

Sure, he can and will refer to the pivotal moment in the roller- coaster game just before half-time, when neither the referee, Steven McLean, nor his assistant on the goal-line, Alan Muir, spotted Josh Meekings raising his right arm to block Leigh Griffiths' close-range header from entering the net.

Deila asked the ref after the game if he knew what he had done, and was informed McLean had not seen it.

Had he, he would surely have awarded a spot-kick, which would have given Celtic the chance to double their lead, and sent off the Caley player.

Stein used to drum it into his players when they felt they were being unfairly treated by officials: 'If they rule out one legitimate goal, just score another'. Well, Celtic did, through a free-kick by sub John Guidetti on 102 minutes, though keeper Ryan Esson will have nightmares about how his early dive allowed the bouncing ball to skip over him.

But by then Caley had recovered from the loss of a Virgil van Dijk opener on 18 minutes, from a much more convincing free-kick, to equalise through a Greg Tansey penalty, given after Craig Gordon brought down Marley Watkins, a foul which brought the keeper a red card.

Despite their numerical advantage, the Highlanders could not get their noses in front until six minutes into extra time when Edward Ofere - a handful for Jason Denayer and Van Dijk all day - drilled home a knockdown from Watkins which Lukasz Zaluska could not stop making it 2-1.

The hope among the Hoops - and Deila - was that they could take the match to penalties.

But when left-back Graeme Shinnie worked his way into the box to cross for right-back David Raven to put Caley ahead again four minutes from time, the balloon -and the Treble - was bust.

After the final whistle, the Celtic players, led by captain Scott Brown and including Van Dijk - who was cautioned for his actions - made one last representation to the group of match officials to debate the penalty which was not given.

Their feeling of injustice will be no less entrenched today, but Deila has warned his players it must not be allowed to deflect from their goal to finish the season with a Double.

The campaign will now end a week early, on May 24. Ironically, their opponents at Parkhead will be Inverness.

If John Hughes and his players have to watch the Hoops collect the SPFL trophy that day, some of the pain from yesterday will be eased.